A History of the Mahrattas v2.c36.26

v2.c36.26

When the President and Council at Bombay accepted the first invitation of Moraba’s party, the Supreme Government approved of their having done so, because the principal person who had signed the treaty of Poorundhur, the articles of which still remained unfulfilled, was one of those who had joined in the application; and the other party, Nana Furnuwees, not only obstructed the fulfilment of the articles of the treaty, but was supposed to be negotiating, if he had not actually concluded, a secret agreement with the French, which threatened the existence of the Company’s possessions on the west of India. Under these circumstances, in a dispatch dated the 23d March, the Governor-General and Council authorized the Bombay Government ‘to assist in tranquillizing the dissensions of the Mahratta state’; they directed, that in whatever manner the ruling party should choose to conduct the administration, personal security should be demanded for Rugoba, and the expenses of any military expedition that might be required should be borne by the Mahratta government. Bassein, and some territory in its neighbourhood, were to be demanded in exchange for Baroach, whilst, in order to defeat the designs of the French, it was ordered that there should be an express stipulation, preventing all European settlements within the Mahratta territories, unless sanctioned by the supreme British Government in India; and they announced that, lest the French should obstruct these objects, Colonel Leslie’s detachment would take the field for the support of the Presidency of Bombay.